Improvement as a process

Everyone wants to get better.

The superintendent wants to preside over a healthier, more sustainable course. The 10 handicap wants to be a 9, the 6 a 2. The business executive wants to improve her leadership skills. The heart surgeon wants to save more lives.

Continuous improvement is a goal worthy of our best efforts, whether we are long or short into our careers. If for no other reason, if we’re not improving — relative to our competitors or a set of management-imposed expectations — we’re falling behind.

The quest to be a little better than we are now, and then a little better than that, has spawned a billion-dollar self-help industry that seeks to answer a simple question: Let’s consider a five-step process:

Believe

First, we should not think that better — even excellence — is a birthright and beyond our reach. Obviously, most 5-foot-3 guys are not going to make it in the NBA (don’t tell that to Muggsy Bogues), and Charlie Woods certainly has some good genes working in his favor. But K. Anders Ericsson, author of “Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise,” debunks the myth that the main reason the best swimmers, violinists, chess grandmasters and spelling bee champions win at such a high rate is because they were born into excellence. What he found in his research is that champions continued to get better because they practiced more than their competitors and often by themselves after everyone else had headed for the showers.

Plan

What do you want to improve? The most reliable and successful continuous improvement is carefully considered and specific. “Trying to get better” is not specific and, thus, not a plan. The keys to effective planning involve defining intentions and understanding why these improvements are important. Some of the questions to consider as part of the planning phase:

• What do we want to improve … and why?
• Is this a threshold, must-have priority?
• Who will be affected — positively and negatively?
• What’s the upside to a positive solution?
• What resources are required to put the plan into action?

Do

The next step is to implement the plan. Enroll in that class. Get up early to attend that seminar. Contact nationally respected figures and ask for their guidance. Meet with your owners and managers to make sure your priorities are in sync. Read what experts have written. Write articles and submit them to publications. In other words, . Einstein is credited with defining insanity — and he might have included career inertia in the same maxim — as doing the same things over and over and expecting different results.

Evaluate

Results of your plan’s implementation must be evaluated to determine what worked and why, and what didn’t and why not. Evaluating performance and results requires answers to the following questions:

• Who will test the new methods and solutions?
• How will we test the improvements against the desired outcomes?
• What process will we use for collecting and measuring our results?
• How will we adjust our plan before future implementation?

In the evaluation phase, there may be a need for more than one attempt and analysis. Seldom does continuous improvement come easy. If it did, most would already be taking this step. To evaluate the new approach, ask the following questions:

• Did it achieve the desired results?
• Do we need to test other solutions?
• Can the results be leveraged on a larger scale?

Question

If you implement the change, can continuous improvement be achieved and sustained? To double-check yourself, your intentions and the solution you are implementing, several questions must be answered:

• Will this approach require resources other than those currently available?
• What training will the team need to continue to implement the plan?
• How can we sustain the benefits brought about by this change?
• Are there additional opportunities for improvement?

Many believe the ability to learn faster and better than competitors is today’s only sustainable competitive advantage. If that’s true, then that makes the work we do to get better more than something that embellishes our résumé — it makes it the top priority.